1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric oven, and more particularly, to an electric oven that evenly sustains the flow of air around a food item being cooked through convection to obtain favorable cooking results in a short time.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, an electric oven is a cooking appliance that has a heat source provided in a chamber generating heat to cook food. Electric ovens can generally be divided into countertop ovens and built-in ovens.
Specifically, countertop electric ovens are independently placed on kitchen counters, etc., and built-in electric ovens have their chamber portions built into kitchen walls or kitchen cabinets.
An electric oven according to the related art includes a chamber forming a cooking space, a rack provided within the chamber for supporting food to be cooked therein, a heater for heating the food to be cooked that is placed on the rack, and a door for selectively opening and closing the cooking space.
In detail, the heater includes an upper heater located at the top of the chamber, a lower heater located at the bottom of the chamber, and a convection heater located at the rear of the chamber. The convection heater has an adjacent fan that circulates heat generated by the convection heater within the chamber. The rack allows food to be put in and taken out of the chamber.
Methods for altering the structure of the rack in order to achieve better cooking result have been proposed. Specifically, one method proposes that a heater be installed below the rack to raise the effectiveness of heating the food, and another method proposes using a member made of a highly thermal conductive metal or other material below the rack to maintain uniformity in the heat rising up to the rack.
Despite there being a variety of such proposals, the problem of being unable to create a uniform flow of heat within the expansive chamber still exists, impeding the attainment of favorable cooking results.
When heat flows quickly and contacts certain parts of food to be cooked, the food is heated unevenly. Also, in the case of multi-level cooking, the cooking of food differs according to the position of the rack on which it is placed.